We don’t need any new criminal laws. We have more than enough right now -- 4,000 federal crimes, and many times that number of state crimes. If prosecutors can’t find anything to charge a particular cyberbully with, that bully has not committed a crime. If simply being a jerk was a criminal offense, we would need many more prisons than the hundreds we already have.

A national conversation about civility would be a more effective tribute to Tyler Clementi than creating more criminal laws.

Suicide is a tragic response to bullying. It is also a rare response. Of the millions of children who suffer bullying, few take their own lives. Bullies “cause” suicides in the same way that a man “causes” the suicide of a lover he spurns. The criminal law typically does not hold people responsible for outcomes that are idiosyncratic or unpredictable.

It is possible to deeply mourn the deaths of Tyler Clementi and Phoebe Prince, and also to acknowledge that their suicides are evidence of deeper problems than bullying. In Clementi's case, societal homophobia probably played a big role as well. A straight college kid might be outraged if his roommate broadcast his sexual activity, but for a closeted gay man, the revelation of his orientation -- to the whole world -- might be even more disturbing than the public display of his genitals. Clementi's bullies cruelly exploited that social prejudice, but they did not cause it.

Every tragedy doesn’t have to result in somebody going to jail. When people are punished, it should be for the harm that they intend to do. If a bully crosses the line between freedom of speech, and invasion of privacy, or harassment, those are the crimes he should be charged with, as is happening in the cases currently in the news.

If the only tool you have is prison, then every problem looks like a crime. There are better ways to address cyberbullying, including the public education campaign now underway at Rutgers. A national conversation about the importance of civility and respect would be a more effective tribute to Tyler Clementi than trying to prosecute his bullies for manslaughter. They acted meanly, and possibly even criminally, but not homicidally.